Perspectives on Africa
Live Virtual Auction, 17 February 2025
Perspectives on Africa
About the SessionStrauss & Co is pleased to present Perspectives on Africa, a sale that explores the complexity, beauty, and fluidity of perspectives through African art and works by artists with strong ties to the continent. The sale coalesces the rich and varied connections between Africa and its artistic expressions, presenting works that span figuration, landscape, and abstraction, inviting collectors to engage with powerful narratives emerging from Africa's evolving perspectives. The works reflect layered meanings, both as a method of representing depth and dimension as a way of framing our understanding of the world. Work by Contemporary artists reflects on the historical foundations of Modernist artists, exploring themes such as identity, belonging, urbanisation, and re-encounters with tradition, while the sale transitions to Modernist interpretations of Africa, exploring the complexity of colonial encounters, post-independence aspirations, and indigenous practices. Building on Strauss & Co’s commitment to developing a strong local photography market, the sale includes an artist focus on the work of social documentarian Paul Alberts, whose images captured poignant narratives of everyday life, particularly in Cape Town. These works sit alongside David Goldblatt and Zanele Muholi, whose visceral images explore themes of identity, social justice and the multifaceted realities of African life.
About this Item
signed and dated 74; inscribed with the artist's name and the title on the reverse
Provenance
Collection of Gregoire Boonzaier.
Private Collection.
Notes
Gerard Sekoto was a master of light and colour, and in the present lot, the warm and earthy palette vividly conveys the heat and vibrancy of township life. Township scenes were among Sekoto’s most significant and enduring subjects. Initially explored during the 1930s and 1940s in South Africa, they were revisited throughout his career, even while living and working in France. This work, created in 1974, encapsulates the artist’s ability to bring movement and rhythm to scenes of everyday life.
Sekoto’s paintings often depict people engaged in daily activities – children playing, women conversing, men commuting, and families gathering. The portrayal of street sports, as seen in this work, was a familiar and dynamic scene in neighbourhoods such as Sophiatown, District Six, and Eastwood – places the artist lived in and fondly remembered. Though some interpret Sekoto’s later works as nostalgic reflections on his South African heritage, the artist himself offered a different perspective: ‘I called it the two worlds. I was not being nostalgic but was trying to put one foot on Africa and the other into the street I was living in, Rue des Grands Augustins, still not dividing myself – just remaining as one.’1
This year, in March, the Centre Pompidou in Paris will host an exhibition titled Paris Noir: Artistic Movements and Anticolonial Struggles, 1950–2000, showcasing works by Sekoto alongside over 150 African and Afro-descendant artists. The exhibition seeks to highlight the contributions of Black artists in France during this period, recognising their influence on modern and postmodern artistic movements. Despite Sekoto’s pioneering career, his work has often been overlooked in France, making this exhibition a significant step toward celebrating his legacy.2 The present lot, painted during this crucial yet neglected period, exemplifies Sekoto’s mastery and the profound cultural resonance of his art.
1. Barbara Lindop (1988) Gerard Sekoto, Randburg: Dictum Publishing, page 238.
2. Centre Pompidou (2024) Exhibitions, https://www. centrepompidou.fr/en/program/exhibitions, accessed 19 October 2024.
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